Equistone sells majority stake in Bulgin to Infinite Electronics

Equistone Partners Europe (“Equistone”), one of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors, today announces that it has agreed to sell its majority stake in Bulgin, a leading manufacturer of environmentally sealed high-performance engineered solutions, to Infinite Electronics, Inc., a global portfolio of leading in-stock connectivity solution brands.

Founded in 1923, Bulgin has a century of experience designing, developing and manufacturing harsh environment connectivity solutions for over 75,000 end-users across a wide range of industries. Its focus on bespoke services and custom capabilities is supported by quick prototyping and a rapid response team. 

Since Equistone’s acquisition of the business from Elektron Technology PLC in 2019, Bulgin has grown significantly, opening a new site in Tunisia and new headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom, as well as investing in product development and implementing a new data and analytics platform to support sales. Bulgin now has more than 670 distributor locations spanning 60 countries and six continents. The business employs over 680 people across its locations in the UK, North America, Asia-Pacific and North Africa.  

Paul Harper, Partner at Equistone, said: “We are proud to have worked with John and his team over the last three years to support Bulgin’s continued growth and development of a strongly differentiated market position. The business has an excellent brand and is well-positioned for the future. We wish the team well on the next stage of their journey with Infinite Electronics, Inc., under whose ownership we expect they will continue to thrive in attractive global markets.”

Tristan Manuel, Investment Director at Equistone, added: “Equistone has a strong track record of successful investments within the industrials sector. Over the course of our partnership, Bulgin has transformed their operational infrastructure, enhanced their product offering through R&D and broken ground in a number of new markets.”

John Wilson, Bulgin’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “With Equistone's support we have achieved strong growth over the last three years and expanded our global reach significantly. Joining Infinite Electronics’ portfolio provides the Bulgin brand with the scale and leverage opportunities required to accelerate access into its largest market in North America. Infinite Electronics and Bulgin share much in common – ambitious global growth plans and customer-centric values. This is an exciting milestone in the Bulgin brand’s journey.”

Bulgin and Equistone were advised by Houlihan Lokey (M&A) and Travers Smith (Legal).